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Our first Bullhorn Live event in London, which took place at the end of October, exceeded my expectations and the entire Bullhorn team has been flooded with positive feedback. In fact, I have heard from many customersband partners that attended that it was the most rewarding recruitment event ofthe year.

Many members of the Bullhorn senior management team, including founder and CEO Art Papas and VP of technology Matt Fischer, were in from the States for the event. It was a wonderful opportunity for our managementteam to meet with our European customers and partners face-to-face anddemonstrate their approach to recruitment technology, present the roadmap for the product and listen to attendees' feedback.

The day was packed with presentations and saw plenty of networking between our customers and Marketplace partners. Presentations included a session on Bullhorn tips and tricks, an update on Bullhorn's newest standard features and a discussion on the importance of social media in recruitment by recruitment specialist Lisa Jones.

There was also a customer panel which included Rethink's operations director Tim Jacob, group MD of client relationships at NES Global Talent Mike Chapman, Harrington Starr's MD Toby Babb and group IT director at Premier Group, Don Ryan. It was great to see 200 people in one room with the common bond of Bullhorn, sharing best practice and learning together how to get the most value from the platform.

We heard from many of our customers that they decided to attend Bullhorn Live London because they wanted to hear about the latest technologies Bullhorn is, and will soon be, offering. Having achieved an overall customer conference score of 4.43/5 it is clear that we were able to whet their appetites with a glimpse of what the future holds.

On a recent trip to Hong Kong and Singapore, I had the chance to meet with a few of our users in the AsiaPac region. It is always nice to be able to speak with our clients around the world and a great reminder of how much Bullhorn has grown since we launched our international operation in the UK four years ago.

When we first set-up shop outside the US, it was just myself and a small teamworking from London. Many of our original UK clients were as small as we were, and needed a technology partner that could facilitate fast growth.

And as we expanded internationally, so did our clients, with many of our biggest UK customers now working throughout AsiaPac and the rest of the world. With Bullhorn teams already in the United States and Europe, our growing office in Sydney, Australia, means we now provide time-zone specific ‘follow the sun' 24/7 support to all of our clients wherever they are in the world.

The expansion of our international operations is in large part due to continued investment in Bullhorn solutions which has seen fantastic growth in user numbers - Bullhorn Reach alone has over 250,000. These increased customer numbers were mirrored by a fantastic turnout at our first Bullhorn Live event outside of the US, which took place in London on October 30. Customers and partners from across Europe were in attendance to hear about the latest Bullhorn innovations and plans for the future. Watch out for pictures from the event on this blog.

Of course, in addition to the local support, international expansion is made easy for our clients by our true cloud SaaS system which remains perfect for establishing new offices quickly. True cloud solutions are ideal for rapid international growth as they require only a computer and internet connection. In addition, browser-accessible SaaS is just as secure and reliable as an in-house system (even more so in most cases) - but doesn't come with the hassle of an IT setup. Unburdened by unnecessary installation, maintenance and updates, recruiters can simply get on with their jobs and develop businesses all over the world. It's fantastic to see, and if I haven't met you in person then I hope to catch up with you soon as I visit another Bullhorn city near you!

SMB.co.uk, the employee management solution for small and medium-sized business, has launched. The UK-based cloud software is specially designed to optimise HR management processes and boasts a wide range of powerful features including: intelligent absence and sick leave management, up-to-the-minute holiday calculation, full employee lifecycle management and clear data analysis and reporting.

SMB.co.uk comes to market led by CEO Tony Dillon, who has over 20 years of experience in business management and software development, having worked in technical and operational roles including at IQ Consultancy, Cobent and Concerca.

Dillon comments: "SMB.co.uk gives businesses complete control of employee management no matter how complex their needs. Every member of the core management team has run their own small businesses and with that extensive business management experience, we understand how complex and time-consuming HR tasks can be. A common challenge for SMEs is managing absence requests and holiday calculations, for example. Particularly when a business has changing shift patterns or high numbers of part time staff. SMB.co.uk is particularly strong in this area, and has a full suite of intelligent HR tools to match."

SMB.co.uk is also a mobile solution for a workforce on the move, giving users 24/7 access across all desktop and mobile devices. The proactive system keeps administrators up to date with important notifications, and multi-level permissions can be set to ensure the right people have access to the right data.

Dillon concludes: "It amazes us that spreadsheets are still used for critical processes like employee management. Our motto at SMB.co.uk is ‘Shred the spreadsheet!’ We want to show SMEs that there are far more efficient and reliable ways to handle HR processes, and help them take their employee management systems to the cloud."

Many readers will know Euan Semple from his book 'Organisations don't tweet, people do' which did much to lift the veil of doubt and confusion which clouds many peoples views of social media and business.

At HRTech Europe he presented on how to go about socialising the people process. In common with many published thought leaders he offers some very tweetable soundbites and insights that sound simple but take time for structured organisations to grasp.

In the early stages of trying to get his teams back to networked, relationship driven conversations he was told by a boss that 'conversation' wasn't particularly a business word! He talked of the challenge of trying to build a new world using the rules of the old world, and the importance of using internal networks to help facilitate the change. Anyone who has tried to help an organisation embrace social networks, either for internal communication or to reach out to customers and partners, will recognise that.

Here are 5 things he said that should help you if you're swimming against the tide of apathy when it comes to social implementation:

Your staff already have a social media policy and if you're lucky then they've included you in it

This isn't a choice. People are using it. If asked about ROI then ask the ROI of stopping it. The ROI of not doing it.

Your ability to react on social media channels is governed by the ease of communication inside the organisation. Does it take 14 people to sign off a blog?

If you won't take risks then don't expect a young trainee to take them for you on social networks

Don't force the CEO to blog if it's not natural to them - it will be like watching your dad try to dance at a disco and wishing he'd sit down. Let them find their voice first.

All of these struck a chord with me. The more events I attend, the more that I notice a growing chasm between businesses who are getting it right, and those staying on the staring blocks, whether it's through uncertainty, unwillingness or a complete lack of trust.

Clearly you need certain things to make it happen.

A socially aware leadership - it really doesn't have to be the C-suite as long as they trust their management structure in decision making

Open internal communications style - as Euan implied, it won't work if there is a chain of command before sending out a message

Trust in your employees - it's a given. If you can't trust them to represent you in the right way then what are they doing there

Realisation that not one department or team own social media - it belongs to everyone, and each person will look at it differently

An understanding of how your customers, clients, partners and employees are already using it and what expectations they may have.

One day, hopefully not too soon, we may be able to do away with sessions around the why and how of social media, and talk about outcomes and opportunities.

HRTech Europe opened with 'How the technologies of the social era are changing the way we do business' - a quick fire keynote from Prof Costas Markides, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship London Business School.

Rich in statistics, research and soundbites, the overall message wasn't so much about the technology but about the people - how we use it and how it affects the employee/employer dynamic.

The internet is changing us. According to research from prof Gary Small UCLA, 5 hours exposure to the net is enough to change the structure of our brain, manifesting itself in cursory reading, hurried & distracted thinking, superficial learning and an attention span reduced to 30 seconds.

Employee behaviour and expectations are therefore changing. We are becoming a generation of nomophobes (or is it nomophobics?!) living in fear of being out of phone range. Whilst 43% of us can't imagine life without our partners, this rises to 84% who can't imagine life without internet and 97% life without our mobile phones. About half of us trust recommendations from our family but two thirds trust recommendations from strangers.

The key theme was of creating a shared purpose in our businesses. With a decentralised workforce (75% of US jobs will have an element of home working by 2020 ) we need to look beyond rules and regulations to bring the best out of our employees. How to keep them all focused and motivated? How do you avoid chaos? How do you promote innovation? The answer was in having strong shared values to act as parameters within which people can operate with autonomy.

'Any idiot can write a mission statement or statement of values and pin it to a wall' said the professor 'the question is are they in the heart of your people?'. He used the example of family life - we don't frame family values in a formal way, but they are in the hearts of our children. So how can organisations embed these in their employees? There was much talk of getting emotional buy in and the four steps of how to gain an emotional commitment…I know - I understand - Yes, I think I can - I WILL!

The customer/business dynamic was also looked at, with each customer interaction now having the potential to create negative PR if the employee handles it badly - has HR got that message through to employees? Hopefully this would be one of the shared values.

The overriding message was of openness and transparency, how HR should be harnessing this and taking the lead in embedding strong shared values. Interestingly this was a very similar theme to the opening keynote at HRTech in Las Vegas earlier in the month. New social technologies can lay bare the organisational structures and inner workings of business and with employees and customers having heightened expectations of how this can enrich their work and personal lives we need to strike a balance.

As 'work' gradually shifts to being what you do as opposed to where you do it, and the culture at the heart of business is exposed through transparent conversations, then corporate beliefs will be battling for hearts as well as minds.

NES Global Talent, the technical manpower specialist, has successfully implemented Bullhorn’scloud-based recruitment software in all of its offices in 23 countries worldwide.

NES Global Talent decided to make the move in order to standardise its global procedures, further improve the integrity of its data and better understand the profile of its candidates.

Mike Chapman, managing director client relationships at NES Global Talent, commented to me about the implementation: “As a business we are focused on innovation, on separating ourselves from the pack, and we took this same approach when selecting new recruitment software.

“Bullhorn is fully integrated with all of our other systems globally, including our financial software, creating a streamlined process, which not only benefits our business but also our candidates and clients.

“We chose to partner with Bullhorn as the service can be accessed from anywhere in the world, making it easy to implement across our global network of offices. NES Global Talent plans to grow its global office network from 37 to more than 60 over the next four years and we need a partner that is as nimble and quick to adapt as we are.”

A big part of Bullhorn’s product development strategy is looking for recruiters’ pain points. When we identify a recruitment challenge that we can provide a solution to, our talented team develops answers to problems in the form of new tools and functionality.

This is why we’re so excited about a key feature of Bullhorn Reach, one which enables recruiters to create branded job pages for their websites. The problem a lot of recruiters had was turning visitors to their websites into candidates, and linking the process with their CRM, social media and job board activity, so that the process wouldn’t add any unnecessary admin.

An agency could use internal or hired development resources to either build a new add-on for the recruitment company’s website or re-build the website from scratch. While the end result is usually sleek and does the job, for your average recruitment firm this is a prohibitively expensive way of doing things and takes a long time to produce a finished product. As with any bespoke system, it also requires regular maintenance and has an attached shelf life depending on future technology advancements, all of which impacts on total cost of ownership.

Our development team devised the new jobsite function so that it looks and feels like an extension of an agency’s website and carries their branding, logos, photos, and colours. Designed to act as a candidate funnel into the Bullhorn CRM, the company page captures candidates and reels them into the Bullhorn system. By having everyone funnel candidates through the Bullhorn Reach jobsite tool, you have the analytic ability to know where placements are coming from and how to focus efforts.

We also invested heavily in ensuring the pages are optimised for the greatest candidate yield, from layouts to button sizes, and by making the pages mobile-friendly. Eighty-six per cent of job seekers say they would use mobile technology to apply for a job, and our recent white paper about mobile-powered selling revealed that the sector has been slow to reactto this so far.Job seekers want recruitment to be mobile, and we’re doing our best to make it easy for recruiters to provide that option.

The majority of companies undertake onboarding in order to improve employee productivity (39%) and engagement (31%), yet a perceived lack of time can put a spanner in the works, according to research by SilkRoad, providers of talent management SaaS solutions.

Drivers and barriers:

SilkRoad’s survey revealed conflicting attitudes to onboarding. Just 3% of HR managers consider reducing administration and costs as a key driver for onboarding, yet 35% name time constraints as the biggest barrier to improving the process within their organisation.

Nicholas Roi, Managing Director SilkRoad UK comments: “What we see from the results is a lack of formalised onboarding strategy in many companies. One fifth of respondents cited lack of ownership as a barrier to onboarding while almost a third told us that centralising and providing consistency for the onboarding process would be beneficial, yet only 32% currently treat the onboarding process as a central HR function.”

When asked what elements of their onboarding process could be improved, a third (32%) suggested centralising the process and just over a third (34%) said integrating new hires with current employees.

London-based start-up cub19, the award-winning provider of visual analytics and performance science, has partnered with Bullhorn, the global leader in recruiting software. cube19 has joined the Bullhorn Marketplace to offer staffing firms real-time cloud-based analytics, which can be accessed anywhere, including on mobile devices.

The Bullhorn Marketplace gives recruiters access to an extensive range of applications and services, all of which are tested and pre-integrated with Bullhorn. Marketplace partner applications help recruiters streamline every part of their business - from background checks and payroll to accounting system integration and sourcing - to drive bottom-line results. Existing Marketplace partners include Ebsta and McGuire's previous business, Broadbean Technology.

cube19, which is chaired by Russell Clements, the former CEO of recruitment giant SThree, was previously named one of the top 20 start-ups of 2012 by Startups.co.uk.

As a result of cube19's integration with Bullhorn's applicant tracking system Bullhorn customers will be able to:

See real-time updates on the performance of their company, divisions and individual recruiters

Use performance science to manage and motivate staff more effectively

Analyse how well they deliver results to clients

Access their most important business information on their mobile devices

The seamless integration of cube19 with the Bullhorn ATS provides a platform to significantly improve revenues, with Bullhorn customers Cititec and Harrington Starr citing cube19 as a key driver in their impressive recent financial results.

Flexible working was a hot topic in the UK last year; in July, Boris Johnson commented that home working is "an excuse for general malingering" and a "skiver's paradise". Then, in November, Nick Clegg outlined plans to extend the right to request flexible working to all employees with 26 weeks' continuous service to their employer. It is hoped that these changes will come into place in 2014, yet the debate looks set to continue well into 2013. The question remains: how will employers react to the development, and will more requests for flexible working will be granted as a result?

In the US we already enjoy a high level of flexibility; it is believed that nearly a third of full-time workers successfully take advantage of an elastic work schedule.

SilkRoad, the company ethos is to treat employees with respect: they're adults and deserve to be treated as such. This means trusting them to handle their workload responsibly. By doing this, it has been found that employees repay that trust with good sense and maturity, and, most importantly, with a realistic approach to flexible working which allows everyone to achieve their goals.

It’s not just SilkRoad that has experienced the benefits of a positive workforce. We've all heard about Google's working culture: one day each week, it lets its creatives work on whatever they want. When Google reviewed this system, it realised that the best work had been done during this ‘free’ portion of the working week.

A good workplace is all about solid work ethics. Inculcating in your employees a strong sense of responsibility will have many positive effects on your business going forward. Among other things, it will set in place a work culture that will continue to enrich itself, directly affecting the productivity for the better.

It won’t happen overnight though, but is more than worth the effort. In fact, it’s the best way to make the most of the talent you have recruited and the business you have started. Here are some suggestions to help you along the path.

Start with a vision

Just as you have a vision for your business, you need one for your workforce, too. What kind of team dynamics would you prefer? Vague answers like “I want everybody to get on well” won’t help. Having detailed professional attributes in mind for the employees alongside their job profiles may prove to be more helpful.

Second, you need to take into account your own leadership style. Are you a hands-on manager who likes to be involved with all the major projects, or do you prefer to give people their creative space and only check in from time to time?

Your assessment of responsible employee behaviour will proceed from your own vision and personality type. Articulate this vision to the employees in clear terms.

What does professionalism mean to you? Is it about being punctual, not taking leaves without informing the management, completing work assignments on time, adhering to the dress code, not being wasteful with company resources, all of the above? Every place has its own brand of professionalism. What is yours?

Deal with unprofessionalism swiftly

We hope you have hired the right people. That should mean you don’t have too much of bad or sloppy behaviour to put up with.

But everybody joins a new workplace with their own experience. They bring to you what they have learnt elsewhere, and that may include questionable behaviour that may have been tolerated elsewhere.

If, however, you don’t find a certain type of behaviour professional, you don’t have to put up with it. Unprofessionalism should be dealt with fast or it will reflect badly on you.

Tolerating sloppy behaviour gives out a signal you don’t care about professionalism yourself. That would encourage others to follow suit and may well lead to a larger domino effect. Nip it in the bud.

Help your employees cultivate good workplace habits

Ask them not to be wasteful with company resources. That may include not using the office Internet for excessive personal use, or chatting with friends on the company phone, taking a half-n-hour latte break on company time, etc.

Educate them on the need to observe all the required precautions when handling potentially dangerous equipment. For example, wearing work helmets in construction businesses and work safety gloves when handling toxic chemicals or abrasive surfaces.

Encourage them to bring to the immediate attention of management anything that is off.

Emphasise on team play.

Finally, reward good behaviour

Rewards work remarkably well not just with our canine companions but also with us primates.

Monetary incentives are always the best. But other types of incentives may also work equally well; for example, allowing people flexibility in work hours, or rewarding them with company-sponsored lunches/high street vouchers. Take note of your best performing employees, and learn their personal preferences. Don’t be too result-oriented though (unless you are running a sales company). It’s equally important to recognise and reward good professional behaviour. Conscientious employees are not all that common to come by, so don’t take them for granted.

Conclusion: There are many ways to build a responsible team with strong work ethics but as the owner of the business, it all begins with you. You lead and they follow, which is why it is very important for you to be a thorough professional yourself. We would once again like to stress here that the origins of a good team begin with responsible hiring. It is far easier to hone the professionalism of a good employee than to convert an irresponsible employee into a responsible one. The latter may never happen, so don’t waste your time on bad apples.

Oxford, 1 August 2013 – A new employee referral service that launches today, Talentpools (www.talentpools.me) brings affordable software to start-ups and small- and medium sized businesses wanting to harness the power of recommendation from their existing staff. The service connects employers with employee referrals, using social media to build a diverse candidate pool, more suited to the company culture and at a much lower cost.

Traditional referral processes have been paper-based and even those automated fail in many cases to provide the referee with a notable candidate experience. Talentpools gives all members access to a dashboard where they can see their status, view company communications and build a brand connection with the employer. Members have the option to stand out from the crowd by creating a dynamic profile that allows them to market their abilities in a way traditional systems do not. Employers can house alumni, current employees and potential staff in one place and capitalise on referrals from all elements of the talent chain.

Strategic investment will fuel continued product innovation to support rapid company growth

London, August 13, 2013 – SilkRoad, a leading global provider of cloud-based talent management solutions, has raised $16 million in growth financing, bringing total funds raised to $145 million. Investors include Foundation Capital, Intel Capital, Azure Capital Partners, Keating Capital (NASDAQ: KIPO), and Crosslink Ventures. This new funding will be used to fuel ongoing product innovation across SilkRoad’s Life Suite® Talent Management software to support rapid company growth.

SilkRoad’s Life Suite is a leading cloud-based talent management system for small to mid-size businesses (SMB), offering an integrated set of HRMS, Talent Acquisition, and Talent Development applications that enable customers to find, attract, develop, and retain the best talent. The company continues to capitalise on a $24 billion global mid-market opportunity, with 90 percent of its 1,800 customers reporting fewer than 5,000 employees. SilkRoad now serves global locations across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.

The past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster for me as I tried helping out a young friend (a dental hygienist) with his applications for dental jobs . I only felt the need to interfere after I saw him losing his mind over it. I thought my experience and worldly wisdom would help him deal with it all better. Ha! One day into his quest and I was desperately trying to hold on to my own mind!

Here are only four reasons why:

1. It’s overwhelming

The options online are endless. It makes you feel like this country is swarming with jobs. There are so many of them and not enough people to fill them.

Our leaders, on the other hand, tell us something else entirely. The slow moving economy and a lack of jobs have been hot button topics for the past few years. So what causes the busyness in the online job space? I can only wonder.

2. It’s endless

The number of search options on most job portals seems exciting in the beginning, but it only leads to despair. One keeps wondering endlessly what if they had set their search criteria differently?

And then we go about incorporating all kinds of combinations into our search, and each combination that fails (which it does way more often than not) leads us closer and closer to total, utter, and absolute despair.

3. It’s time-consuming and stressful

Executing all the aforementioned search combinations and criteria can take up the better part of your day before you even realise it.

One needs to create profiles for all job portals and keep thinking about new passwords as per their requirements. One then starts looking for jobs as per their desired criteria, which keeps expanding due to the choices available.

These choices falsely lure us into thinking that if only we persist with them for some more time we will hit the jackpot. So we keep going, never knowing when to call it off. We even sign up for ‘jobs by email’ and never get anything remotely related to what we are looking for.

And, of course, if one does find something interesting one has to tweak their covering letter and/or the CV for it since our entire future rides on how we pen the whole thing.

If that is not stressful, I don’t know what is.

4. It’s heartbreaking

Stress management is so yesterday. The experience of looking for jobs online requires a whole new skill that can only be called grief management. The atmosphere is very harsh. You are just another job seeker in the sea of millions, something you knew already but which is brought home very cruelly by the online medium.

Nobody even bothers to inform you that you have been rejected. You are supposed to just ‘get it’ if you don’t hear from anybody a few days after submitting your much carefully crafted application, like an ex who did not bother informing you that they had dumped you. Don’t act so naive now, just get the frikkin’ message already!

Yes, I understand that online job searching has its positives and is the way of the future. My friend, like millions others in this country and around the world, has finally learnt how to do it without going utterly mad. I, however, do not find myself excited over the prospect of doing so myself. What do you hate the most about looking for jobs online?

Bullhorn, the global leader in recruiting software, today announced an expanded capability - Bullhorn for Email - that enables its users to get through their email inboxes faster by seeing and acting on ATS/CRM information within the Gmail and Outlook email clients.

Bullhorn for Email is a window into the Bullhorn ATS/CRM, allowing users to see key Bullhorn data without having to leave their inbox. Bullhorn is the only ATS/CRM provider that offers direct integration with Gmail and Outlook without the need for plug-ins, enabling recruiters to work from anywhere at any time across any platform.

Bullhorn for Email enables users to:

Access the latest information on who they're emailing: While in their inbox, Bullhorn users can see the most recent notes, resumes, and job ordersassociated with each of their email contacts.

Take action without switching applications: Instead of bouncing betweenemail windows and the Bullhorn ATS/CRM, users can handle common sales and recruiting tasks directly within their inbox.

This is the fourth blog post in our “meet the team” series. Today an introduction of Remy Verhoeven, who is one of the founders of Qandidate.com. Remy is Qandidate.com’s product owner and spends most of his time looking after the product strategy and development.
Hi Remy, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

When I’m not busy with Qandidate.com or one of our other initiatives I’m trying to be the best dad in the world. Sandra, my girlfriend and I have 2 rebels at home; Jaid (3 years old) and Hayden (2 years old). I love spending time with family and friends.

More from a personality point of view, I guess you could say I’m perfectionist in rehab. For some strange reason I always get drawn into data and speadsheets. Do you know the phrase “there’s an app for that”? Well I can genuinely say “I have an Excel for that” on everything. Except off course for recruiting, because that’s where Qandidate.com steps in! I’m structured and organised. I used to read the manual before playing a video game (to get my ass kicked by my little brother who ‘just started’ to play the game).
What are your focus areas at Qandidate.com?

At Qandidate.com I act as the Product Owner of the team. That means I have the privilege to connect with our clients and listen to their needs and ideas. With this information I craft the plans for a vision on what awesome recruitment technology should look like. The other part of the role as product owner is that I have privilege working together with an amazing team of highly involved and skilled software developers and UI/UX designers.

By being the bridge between our customers, the market and the development team, I can bring all different stakeholders together to create a platform that recruiters get happy and excited about.

What does an average working day look like?

An average day is really an average working day when it doesn’t go as initially planned. Typically I hit the gym in the morning before I arrive in the office at 9am. First action is to check all my different email clients and social media channels, before we officially kick the day off with a Team Stand-Up. I tend to do at least a couple of customer phone calls a day to learn more about the customer experience and to listen to their ideas. I have daily meetings with our Lead Developer and our Marketing Director to discuss progress and prioritize the roadmap.

Oh, and in between there is always time for some fuss ball!! Bring it on!

Qandidate.com has been designed together with recruiters. You have spoken with hundreds of recruiters, what was the most requested feature?

I guess the requested feature has also a lot do with the most common complaints about existing systems:

Systems are perceived as too complex (designed by a developer not a UX specialist)
Too many options (you only use 20% of the system but have to pay for the full 100%)
Not built with the most important users in mind (the recruiter and the candidate)
Expensive (often additional hidden costs pop-up; training, set-up, customization, service)
Although systems are designed to support the process, they don’t provide a clear overview

You’re partner at multiple companies, family man, product owner at Qandidate.com, any time for hobbies?

“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”. I can honestly say this fully suits me. To wind down I love to play with my two boys or watch a movie with Sandra. Or just relax with a good book and a cold beer or a good glass of wine. Besides that I enjoy to do some work-outs in the gym or cycling outdoors. During my last holiday to Tuscany I discovered mountain biking which was much more exhilarating than road biking. So don’t be surprised to see me on a mountain bike next year!

Having your own company for many years – what is your most important lessons learned?

(Editor's Note: I worked closely with Jason for a year launching Jobster.com as the first truly web based candidate referral portal into the European Marketplace. He is a true dynamo and has created some amazing businesses.)

Which by the way is a brilliant post and a must read for every entrepreneur. I couldn’t have said it better myself, so I won’t bother trying. The whole post is brilliant, but for me, the most important lessons are:

Work with people you love. Work with people you get excited about. People who thrill you. People you trust. People who you can look at every day and say: There is no better person in the world for this job and critical to business success.
Be willing to fight like hell during the day, but still love each other when you go home.
Only do your One Thing. Everything else is a distraction. Don’t do side projects. Don’t take unnecessary meetings. Anything that distracts you from executing on your One Thing is just that, a distraction. Say no to everything that does not contribute to your One Thing.

It’s all about the product. Always has been. Always will be. The only thing that matters is how good your product is. All the rest is noise.

It’s not about you. Building a successful company is less about you and more about your ability to bring out the greatness in the people around you.

Work with people who argue with you and tell you “no.”
What is your biggest achievement/what made you smile/proud over the past couple of years?

Launching the Beta version of Qandidate.com in January was a huge achievement for the whole team. We really worked day and night, especially the months prior to the launch were “brutal” in terms of business pressure. So hitting the deadline as we all agreed on felt like a million bucks.

The Cabinet Office spent three times more on recruitment in 2012/2013compared to the previous year, according to figures we at Bullhorn obtainedunder the Freedom of Information (FoI) act. A rise in recruitment spending is a trend witnessed across several ministerial departments, with seven of the nine departments that responded to the FoI request revealing increases.

The figures show that, in general, government spending on recruitment is on the rise, with the Department for Education coming in as a close second to the Cabinet Office with a 254 per cent increase in spending. The exceptions to this trend, however, are the House of Commons, which registered a 38 per cent decrease in spending compared to the previous year, and the Department of Health, which saw a 33 per cent decrease.

As government departments increase their recruitment spend, it is essential the money is spent efficiently.

The recruiters surveyed in our annual recruitment trends report reported an average hit rate in the public sector of 34 per cent which was ten per cent lower than the industry with the best hit rates - healthcare. This means there's room for improvement and recruiters servicing the public sector need to make sure their using the latest techniques to attract the best candidates. One of these techniques is the proper use of social media - primarily Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - to fill positions. The Bullhorn 2013 European Trends Report revealed that increased access to passive candidates via social media was ranked as the biggest opportunity in 2013 for staffing and recruitment professionals.

It’s a well-known saying in recruitment – if you get the numbers right, business success will follow. Business intelligence is essential for managing performance as it enables a company to set goals, allocate resources and measure whether objectives are met. There are many different variables that can be used to measure performance. Our Bullhorn 2013 European Recruitment Trends report revealed that 82 per cent of survey respondents base employee success on the number of placements they secure. Other forms of measurement used in the recruitment industry include number of job orders received, placement ratios, time-to-fill, number of contracts secured and number of interviews set.

On my travels I have come across recruitment agencies that insist the key performance indicators (KPIs) they are using are the best ones to measure employee success, but why limit the data you’re collecting and analysing? A holistic approach to business intelligence gives managers a more accurate view of the strengths and weaknesses within their teams as they base decisions on every relevant KPI.

It’s important to note though that accurate data input is essential for good KPIs and agencies should be wary of this when implementing business intelligence solutions. Equally important is the ability to quickly extract the data in an easy to understand format. All employees, not just managers, can benefit from having real time access to information about productivity and how the time they spend on day-to-day activities results in revenue generated.

Accessible business intelligence can increase output per recruiter, make it easier to manage staff, create a competitive environment to motivate recruiters and promote better use of a company’s systems.

Bullhorn provides reporting and analytics tailored specifically to the recruitment sector. This technology enables fact-based decision making based on real-time business intelligence that is specifically customised for each individual employee. Get the numbers right and success will follow - business intelligence software has made this easier than ever before!

LONDON, 12 June 2013 Launchpad Recruits' Mobile App is the first of its kind released which allows candidates to complete their video interview from any IOS device such as an Iphone, Ipod or Ipad. This makes Video Interviewing even more accessible, allowing candidates to complete their video interviews on the go using the technology they have in their pocket.

LaunchPad Recruits is a leading recorded video screening provider - who support innovative businesses to reengineer their recruitment process and deliver an exceptional and engaging candidate experience. LaunchPad Recruits work closely with their clients to refine both the user and candidate experience and develop features which add real value and don't interfere with the flow of your recruitment process. LaunchPad have seen enormous demand for the mobile enabled video interviews from customers who want candidates to be able to quickly engage with their recruitment process.

With 87% of the world population being mobile enabled, and an expected 8 billion mobile users by 2016, it's clear that mobile recruitment is the way forward.

"Great candidates recognise that they want to connect with employers when they are on the move. Providing them with the opportunity to interview at a time and place to suit their careers and life shows that their prospective employer is truly forward thinking. Not only does this improve engagement, it also speeds the recruitment process to match the pace of your hiring needs." says Kirstie Kelly-Batt, Head of Sales and Marketing for LaunchPad.

UK based recruitment agencies that are placing candidates outside of the UK often receive placement fees in local currencies and then have to organise repatriation of funds back to the UK. Such transactions are often automatically executed via a clearing bank and the Recruitment Company incurs a significant cost (2-5%) when repatriating funds.

One method that recruitment agencies can look at to mitigate the costs of managing their currency transactions is to work with a specialist Foreign Exchange company. This approach enables clients to significantly reduce their costs when exchanging currencies while providing the ability to use risk management tools such as Market Orders to ensure they get the best rates. For example, it is often the best strategy is to allow foreign funds to reach an agreed volume before exchanging into GBP to reduce the amount of transactions and receive a better volume rate of exchange.

Case Study
A recruitment company that places candidates across Europe has a sales turnover of £3m and an annual FX turnover of £1m. The company normally uses their clearing bank to repatriate placement fees and cover offices costs. Ebury Partners, offering a far more competitive rate for the company’s FX transactions, was able to save the company 2.5% (£25,000) on their annual FX turnover.

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